Blogging Madness

It's November which means it's national write like nuts month. There's NaNoWriMo, NaNoBloMo, Blog Like Crazy, and probably lots more. But this year it seems like my circle is all in. And I haven't updated here in almost a month. So call it peer pressure. Call it inspiration. Call it a trial run.

Whatever you call it, you can thank/blame these lovely ladies:

Blog Fifty
Zoot
Space Fem
The Anvil Tree

I'm going to attempt to post every day this month. I make no promises, but at the very least it's got to beat last month, eh?

So let's start us off right with a cute picture of the hubby and I at a friends' (is that the correct punctuation, when we are the friends of both the bride and the groom?) wedding last weekend. I'll tell you about the wedding in another post (hey, I need like 30 of them! ; ), so for now just know that it was gorgeous. Filled with amazing people, personal touches, and old timey dancing!

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 30

Today's topic: What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?

My favorite as a kid was pistachio and I still love that salty/sweet combo. As I've gotten older, I've discovered banana ice cream, which with chocolate chunks in it, is pretty much heaven. If I'm going to get chocolate ice cream, I tend to prefer dark chocolates, otherwise the chocolate flavor isn't pronounced enough. So I generally prefer other flavors with pieces of chocolate mixed in.)

My most recent discovery is an absinthe ice cream at Jeni's Spendid Ice Creams which pretty much blows away all other options.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 29

Today's topic: What's your favorite time of year and why?

Late spring. Just at the point where it is reliably warm enough that I can wear whatever I like, but not yet so warm that I'm being boiled alive. Where you can spend all afternoon on the deck or in the sunroom or take a walk down the greenbelt. The sun is so invigorating and we are into (past?) day light savings time so it's light when I leave work. The air is soft and the birds are happily singing and building nests. *happy sigh*

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 28

Today's topic: What's your guilty pleasure?

I try not to feel guilty about harmless things that give me pleasure and to not find pleasure in things that leave me truly guilty.

That said, that phrase most often can be translated to "what thing do you enjoy that you think is embarrassing" and I'll happy own up to the fact that many of the things I like are decidedly uncool or counter to my "image".

I like pop music. Yes, it's often misogynistic, simplistic, over produced and repetitive. It's the junk food of music. But it's catchy and fun to sing along to. (I do find I'm happier if I don't actually listen to the lyrics though.)

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 27

Today's topic: List 3 online friends you've never met in real life but hope to soon.

This topic is tough for me. I've already met several of my online friends in person* and many of the ones I haven't, it's because they are so far away. And, being a member of Rocket City Bloggers many of my local fellow bloggers are ones that I either met in person shortly after becoming aware of them, or I actually met them in person first! (Or I just see them somewhere around town and blurt out "I read your blog!", like I did to Zoot. Who is awesome and took that very graciously.)

I am looking forward to meeting Sarah though, as I have a box of Samoas with her name on it. We had a near miss in Target once, where I spotted her but decided not to mortify the hubby with my "I read your blog!" method.

*That photo up there is me with Spacefemin 2009. She is an online friend I met I don't know, a year or so before that? She is awesome!

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 26

Today's topic: What's your favorite food?

You do realize that I'm a food blogger right? This is like the hardest question in the world, but I'll try.

My general response is that I like down-to-earth food, cooked fantastically. Amazing macaroni and cheese. Farm fresh veggies. Ripe strawberries. Salads bursting with color and flavor. The perfect brownie.

When it comes to what do I gravitate toward when eating out? Things I can't/don't prepare at home. So french fries are the top of the list. Good white sausage gravy. Flaky pastry. Cheesecake. Banana pudding. Onion rings. Steaks. Ie: really healthy food. ^_^

I also love ethnic foods that I didn't grow up with (Mexican and Italian were staples in our house). Indian, Thai, and pretty much anything that involves cooked pineapple (I'm looking at you clay pots and sweet and sour chicken.)

Dark chocolate over milk, Pepsi over Coke, and unsweet tea over sweet. I tend to like creamy foods but a good broth catches my fancy every once in awhile.

And I like things some people think are weird combinations. Jalepano jelly and cream cheese. Chocolate milkshakes and french fries. Cheddar cheese on Chips A Hoy cookies. Salty and sweet has my number.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 25

Today's topic: Describe your location.

My immediate location is our rec room (a few minutes ago I was downstairs in the living room. Oh the difference a few minutes make.) It's cozy here, warm from our computers and the wonderful buoyancy of heated air. It is however, poorly lit where I sit at my desk. The main lighting is overhead, in the center of the room. My desk is not. The hubby is at my left playing a video game at his computer. The cats are currently wandering hither and yon.

One step removed from that, I am in Huntsville. My corner of Huntsville is a delicious blend of suburban (we live within a walkable distance of the grocery store) and rural (our property borders undeveloped land and our yard plays host to deer, squirrels, birds, rabbits, and more.) It's much greener here than in my native desert of Los Angeles. Tonight it is also much colder, with bits of snow twirling in the air, melting as they hit the ground.

Another step back and I am in Alabama. I do not know much of this state. I am not versed in its history aside from the splashes it made on the national stage during the Civil Rights movement. I understand that we have some pretty beaches, but many children at this end of the state grow up without ever seeing them. Somewhere near those beaches is a museum that my grandfather is in. I keep meaning to go visit, see his pictures, learn a little more about the man who died when my mother was just a child.

Zoom out again and I am in the United States. Nation of plenty--of things both good and bad. Plenty of optimism and plenty of hate. Plenty of inspiration and plenty of material pursuits. Plenty of innovation and plenty of close minded "it will never work". Plenty of work still to do.

One more zoom out and I am on a blue and white ball. Bright and full in contrast to the dramatically dim and open of space. I don't know what's out there, but answers to that question filled the books, tv shows, and movies I consumed as a child. Whatever the answer is, its sure to be more glorious, more awful, more surprising than anything we have anticipated, shaped in our own image.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 24

Today's topic: Describe your most embarrassing moment.

I don't know that this is my most embarrassing moment, but I was pretty mortified at the time.

I went to a private Catholic high school and each year they offered several "retreats". (It was a bond with your classmates and god kind of thing and they got longer/more involved each year. So freshman year was a day long retreat onsite, sophomore year a day trip off site, junior year was an overnight, and senior year was a three day overnight.)

So here I am, start of freshman year, in a brand new school with lots of new people, trying to fit in and make friends. Standard stuff. So of course I go to the retreat. Our group was probably about 40 of my classmates and I only remember one thing from it. At one point we were standing in a circle playing that game where the person in the center calls something out, everyone whom that applies to has to run across the circle and switch places (including the person in the center). The person left out is the new person in the center. No big deal right? Except they decided to make it more "fun" by having the person in the center pay a "penalty" before they could call out the next thing.

You will be shocked to know that my slow as molasses running skills landed me in the middle of the circle. (Only if you have any delusions as to my athletic prowess: hint, I've never had any). Anyway, so I'm in the center of the circle, and they decide my penalty is to sing "I'm a Little Teapot".

Now, I'm an introvert through and through. The idea of singing in front of 40 strangers is very low on my list of things to ever do in my life. It's somewhat above "willingly jump out of a perfectly good airplane", and rather below pretty much anything I would consider enjoyable. But I was determined. I was starting high school! I was turning over a new leaf! I was going to make friends! I was going be social!

I grabbed ahold of my courage and started belting it out, complete with hand motions.

And was greeted with blank stares.

Eventually someone asked "...what is that?" I said "I'm a little teapot?" suddenly wishing there was a convenient sink hole that would swallow me up.

(Note: I'm not sure what exactly I was singing, as the I'm a Little Teapot song is pretty simple, but apparently I was going significantly off script.)

After an awkward pause the game moved on and I did my level best not to run across the circle again. And I went back to class the next morning confident in my identity as "that girl who couldn't sing my little teapot". Thankfully, in the bustle of a new school year, memories of my faux pas were short.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 23

Today's topic: Do you have a hobby?

Better topic: what hobby do you not have? Okay, I'm kidding. Mostly. I have several "main" hobbies that I sort of cycle through. Quilting, baking, photography, blogging, reading.

Clearly I can't do all of them all the time. For a few years there I was baking 2-4 times a month. Then I got studying for my PE exam and then (and this will probably sound the weirdest) after finishing my PE exam, I started a reading challenge with the express purpose of reading more because I really hadn't done much since high school. (And I used to be a major bookworm). Reading more cut down on the time I was spending on the internet, which cut down on my blog reading, which cut down on my food blog reading. Turns out that was a major source of inspiration for me because as my reading of food blogs dropped, so did my baking. Weird. But there you can see the direct tradeoff: more reading = less baking.

My quilting has always been very sporadic, but last summer I joined a quilt guild, now I am sewing tons more! When the hubby and I were going for more walks and things, I was also taking more photos, but as the walks have tapered down, so have the photos.

Up down, up down, up down. I do love all of them though and they are things I keep coming back to. I guess I'm just notcut out to be a monogamous hobbiest.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 22

Today's Topic: What do you do when you're home all alone?

It really depends on for how long and why. If just for an hour or two, than I keep doing whatever I was doing. So usually this means dinking around on the internet. If it's for the whole day, the dollars to donuts I'm sick. In which case, I'm lying on the couch with saltine crackers, gatorade, my laptop, and the tv remote. And more likely than not, I'm asleep under a couple of cats.

On the rare occasion where I am home for a day by myself, with no commitments, and I'm healthy, I tend to over-plan. I always figure I can do it all. Sew AND read AND do blog updates AND bake AND do laundry, and, and, and. I tend to actually do one of those (most likely sewing), plus some cleaning. There is something about being home by myself, during the day, that makes me want to clean. I don't get it either, but I can tell you this--if I wasn't at work most afternoons, our house would be a lot cleaner.

One thing I don't really do is cook. There is something so uninspiring about cooking for one. Instead I tend to just forage for odds and ends. A can of corn? Lunch. A handful of pretzels, an apple, one package of string cheese and some candy? Dinner. When the hubby went out of town for a business trip last summer, I texted him pictures to prove I was eating real food. (I cheated though, we had lots of leftovers for me to live on.)

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 21

Today's topic: What's your biggest fear?

I have 3 things that turn me into an incoherent mess:

1. Spiders--My blood curdling scream upon finding a spider on my nightstand once sent my dad rushing across the house to save me. He was less than thrilled to discover he was saving me from a "harmless" garden spider. I've reached the point where as long as a spider is across the room, I'm near an exit, and it's not moving then we can have an understanding. If any of those are not true, it's back to screaming. Any spiders discovered when the hubby is not home are reason to vacate the room.

2. Needles--I've managed to reach an uneasy truce where as long as they stick me with a butterfly needle in the hand I can get through a blood draw with minimum whimpering. But blood draws from the vein in my elbow? Do not go well. The staff is always convinced I'm going to faint because I go white as a ghost. One trip to the hospital involved several people holding me down to draw the blood because they sprung it on me like it was no big deal.

3. Losing my husband--I try not to consider this one too much. Losing Wash in Serenity got me started on one of those crying jags where you pretty much can't stop. So, we go ostrich style on this one, "la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you". I plan on being happily married until we are least 90, by which point I will have hopefully come to terms with reality. Otherwise? We've got to figure out this immortality thing.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 20

Today's Topic: What do you collect?

This is a dangerous question to answer as once people think they have you pegged you will get no end of stuff you probably don't want, in that theme. When I was a kid, I wasn't much for Hello Kitty, but I loved Zashikibuta. Which somehow got translated to "She likes pigs!". And whoa boy did they pour in. Stuffed pigs, pig figurines, a pig doorstop...Granted I did think some other pigs were cute and buy them, so I did sort of encourage it. But, woah pigs. (Still have the doorstop though, very functional.)

These days, I'm on a big declutter kick. It's not really minimalist, because I do find large groupings cozy. It's just that I'm with Wiliam Morris on this:

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”

I don't want stuff for the sake of stuff. I'd much rather have a few items I really enjoy than a roomful of stuff, even if that stuff is pricey, name brand, or "coordinated".

Today's picture is an original, and much beloved, painting by Shayla Maddox.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 19

Today's Topic: List 5 Blogs You Read on Regular Basis and Why

1. Miss Zoot Open, intelligent, articulate, passionate, and a role model for finding your thing and going for it. She's also local and the only blogger I've (yet) fangirled over face to face.

2. Stitched in Color A modern quilter who is as much of a rainbow fanatic as I am. Her patience results in beautiful and inspiring results. I've taken a couple of her online courses and loved them.

3. Blue Milk A feminist, economist, writer and mother, Ande writes about them all in ways that make me think. I often have to save her posts for the weekends, because in addition to her thoughts, she links to other articles and it's this wonderful web of thoughtful, nuanced views, often in ways that highlight multiple sides of an issue.

4. Already Pretty Fashion advice without the heaping doses of guilt, shame, and dismay usually present. Also? It's good advice.

5. Space Fem Engineer, feminist, pilot, sewist, mother. Kim's posts are always a treat-- easily readable, thoughtful, and practical.

Yep, that picture has nothing to do with this post. But it's a cute picture no? The hubby and I on a walk last weekend.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 18

Today's topic: Where are you happiest?

In the sunshine. Sitting in a clean craft room with sunshine streaming in the windows, a cold drink and a purring sewing machine. Or on the deck with a good book. Or in a camp chair in the middle of the woods with a favorite album in my earbuds, pondering life the universe and everything. Or in my kitchen, watching the cats watch birds in the yard as I mix batter. Or in the sun-room, streaming TED talks as I hand stitch.

You see the commonality. Sunshine, solitude, expressive/creative soul feeding activities.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 17

Today's topic: Why and when did you start blogging?

I stumbled into blogging, not really knowing what it was. I was online collecting ideas for our upcoming wedding and a friend has a blog to collect links and things. I thought that was kind of neat, so I signed up for one. Then promptly neglected it for about 6 months. At that point, we were moving 6 hours away from our college friends, so I started blogging as a way to keep up with them. This was in 2005. I found the process of writing to be extremely helpful/therapeutic so it stuck. : )

In 2006, I was selling cards on Etsy and the other sellers suggested using blogs as a marketing tool, so I started this one as a way to do just that. In 2009, when I shut down my Etsy store, this blog evolved into a purely personal blog covering sewing, baking, cooking, photography, books, and sort of whatever else caught my interest.

In 2010, I started The Dining Dragon for restaurant reviews. 2.5 years later, I'm still at it. : )

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 16

Today's topic: What's your biggest accomplishment?

So much of life is small, subtle shifts towards an end goal. I am considerably more patient, open minded, understanding, and other-focused that I was 10 years ago. But I'm not at a point where I could consider any of those "accomplished", they will forever be works in progress. So instead, I'll look only to tangible things that have a clear end point. And of those I am most proud to be able to add a "P.E." after my name.

It's not just because getting there involved 5 letters of rec, 4 years of work experience, 3 study guides, 2 eight hour exams, and 1 very nervous wait. It's because I did it myself. I spent 7 months studying for that second exam. And without an instructor, tutor, or study buddy I stayed disciplined and focused. When something didn't make sense, I worked through it until it did. Sure I ran a few questions by online groups but for the vast majority? It was all me.

And doing that? Shows me that I can do what I put my mind to. That no problem is too tough if I just take a deep breath, step back, and work my way through it. The confidence I gained while working to become a P.E. is something that will serve me well for the rest of my life.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 15

Today's topic: List 10 things that make you awesome.

1. I have seriously impressive organizational skills. I don't mean organizing-the-pantry type stuff. I mean looking at a big picture, then looking at a hodge podge of information and sorting it, classifying it, pulling it into a cohesive structure, and making it make sense to other people. This is one of my greatest strengths at work.

2. I can bake seriously tasty treats. Martha Stewart might turn up her nose at my decorating skills (which are adequate) but the baked goods themselves? They rock.

3. I am an efficiency rock star. Give me a mundane, repetitive task to do and I'll optimize it. Give me errands to run and I will chart my route so as to be as direct as possible. Give me a computer task to do and I'll figure out the fewest clicks to do it in. It's a meta game I play in life, always in the back of my mind, I'm looking for ways to do things faster, with less steps, and more success. Naturally, I love automation.

4. I enjoy puns and silly jokes. (What do you call cheese that isn't yours? Nacho cheese!) The world needs more humor that is positive and kind.

5. I have a great appreciation for good design, of both the industrial and mechanical flavors. Everyone loves an appreciative audience and I'm happy to be one.

6. I am a natural leader. I do not mean to imply that I am a perfect leader nor that I am always good at leading. But I gravitate toward positions of leadership, I am happy to devote my time to helping the organizations I am part of achieve great things and continue the great things they are already doing.

7. I am collaborative. I prefer to work with people to solve problems. I love discovering things together, talking things out, brainstorming and building on everyone's contributions. I suppose this ties into #1--when I work with people who are idea generators, I can curate, hone and evaluate the ideas, and together we can move mountains.

8. I have fun with fashion and personal expression. I would call my style "traditional with a twist" but basically, think traditional cuts with pops of bright colors, handmade accessories, and a little bit funky (dyed hair, multiple ear piercings, I'd have tattoos if I didn't loathe needles).

9. I have a great love for community and endeavor to support local artists, farmers, and businesses as much as I can. Every year we are able to tie ourselves to our community a bit more and though I'm not yet where I would like to be, every little bit counts.

10. I am persistent. Sometimes I manage to avoid obnoxious, sometimes I run right into it. But if something is important, it will not be forgotten, dropped or ignored. It will get done.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 14

Today's topic: What's on your iPod.

I do not actually have an iPod. Nor do I actually listen to music I have digitally stored. Instead I have a Pandora app on my phone (and the Pandora website from my laptop). So it gets control, really.

That said, I love alt-folk, alt-country, bluesy sounds, what I call "coffee shop rock", you know the stuff heard in Starbucks the country over. Artists like Gotye, Mumford and Sons, Lily Allen, Fiest, Florence and the Machine, and Imagine Dragons. I have a soft spot for head-bang inspiring metal (hullo Metallica, Megadeth, Rammstein) especially when paired with symphonies or melodic vocals (Therion, Epica, Nighwish). Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet album is a favorite. I grew up on country, so nostalgia keeps me playing 80s/90s country (Randy Travis, Garth Brooks, Mindy McCready) and listening to the current stuff, most of which is admittedly eye-rollingly unprogressive. (Though Kacey Musgrave's Merry Go Round is a welcome exception.) Adele's soaring vocals make me want to sing at the top of my lungs. Sara Bareilles and P!nk have me saying "hell yea!". I love the smooth melodies of R&B but I find that I'm happier if I don't understand the lyrics. (Nelly, did you just describe a woman as a car? Yes, you did. Why is that song so damn good musically and so ice-pick to brain inspiring lyrically?)

My current, can't-get-enough-of-it-make-me-want-to-move song is My Songs Know What You Did in The Dark by Fall Out Boy (see video above).

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 13

Today's topic: Do you have regret?

The answer: duh.

Of course, I have regret. I (like most other fallible humans) have done and said some colossally stupid things. Foot in mouth syndrome. Clueless moments. Well intentioned gestures gone wrong. Opening my mouth when I should have H.A.L.T.ed*. What I no longer do, however, is allow myself to be eaten alive by my regret. Feel it. Learn from it. And move on. So when something from years ago rears it's ugly head, I sidestep. And I try very hard NOT to do those things again. Sometimes, I even succeed.

H.A.L.T. stands for Hungry Angry Lonely Tired. If you are any of these things, shut mouth, delete email, step away from the aggravation and fix that.

31 Day Blog Challenge--Day 12

Today's topic: Something that you miss.

This question is all together too easy to answer. I miss my friends in California. When the hubby and I moved out to Alabama, we gained a lot of really wonderful things--low cost of living, green space, a wonderful cast of new people, careers we enjoy, two adorable kitty babies, a house--but we left behind some of the most amazing people.

College friends are a special sort of people. These are the people we hosted our first parties with, stayed up all hours with, roamed our town with, road tripped with. I miss them.